The Steel Guitar Forum

I will be starting my pilot training when I return to the states. How many of you have your lisence?

Wayne Baker

Wayne, in my case, I would be considered a pilot who happens to play a little steel guitar.
I started flying in the late 60's and have all the fixed wing ratings including CFI. I have flown cargo and charters and have given flight instruction.
I also worked in the INDY ATRCC for 26 years, so have been involved in flying for over 35 years. I highly reccommend it.

Bobby Seymour...............
world famous dude, (and he can play the PSG too). One of the best persons you could ever meet.

O.K. now Bobby,you owe me a ride in one of them planes.

<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Bill Crook on 26 January 2004 at 08:25 AM.]</p></FONT>

Moom,in Alaska........
we don't hear from him much now-a-days tho.

Moon,buddy, We hope all is well with you and yours.

Wayne,
When does "back home" happen? We need to get you in the pilot's seat of the GSGA. The co-pilot is due for a break.

Got it but its been a while since I could afford to use it.

My last time in the air was with Capt. Bobbe Seymour last fall in one of his fine vintage aircrafts, I can't remember for sure just now (forgive me Ace), but I think it was his Cessna 140, or possibly the Piper PA-20. He reminded me how much fun the conventionals are.

He makes tail wheels look easy, wich in my opinion are not, under some circumstances.

Seymour is a very serious stick and rudder man.

John Drury
NTSGA #3<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Drury on 25 January 2004 at 07:44 AM.]</p></FONT>

Not yet, but seriously thinking about having a go - my neighbour in the adjoining condo is an ex-Air Force (mostly flew C47s), and he's told me I could get 'solo' for about $3,000.

That would be exciting, and I've almost decided to go for it - there may just be a little 'nerve' wanting.....

RR

Hi Wayne. I got my private in 72 and inst in 87. I owned a 172 from 78 till 87 and a Cardnil RG from 1987 till I retired in 1997. I had aprox 2000 hrs and 95 hrs twin time. I still fly with a Dr friend who had a turbo pressurized air conditioned Baron. He now has a 1997 Bonanza A 36 turbo,air cond, moving map and all the electronics a person could want. I miss my Cardnil sometimes but have more change in my pocket now for steel stuff. Dont get gethomeitis or over confident and you will live a long time like Bobbe S and myself.

I am a pilot and I owe my license to my guitar. In 1971 I found myself as a new college grad with no job. I was playing 5-6 nights a week for $25 a night. Actually that was quite a bit of money at the time. Flying was something I had always wanted to do. It cost $12.50 per hour (wet) to rent a Cessna 150 and the instructer was another $5. I could fly each day after a gig and still have money left over. I might add that I was single. In 5 months I had a Private Pilot ticket. I meet a soldier in a club that we were playing who was also a pilot and we became good friends. He gave me a key to his plane and let me fly it for just gas and oil. I later was given hat plane to take care of while he recouperated from a crash in another plane. I had the plane for one an one half years. Gas and Oil..
There was a period of twenty years after that I did not fly. Five 4 years ago I decided I had best get back into it before I got too old. I now have a PA28-150 with hanger and a runway(dirt) out my back door. The one big problem thoughout the years is that I do not play the harmonica. Can't get all my gear into the little plane to go play gigs.

I've had a pilot's license since '76. Have about 650 hours. Mostly in a 172. Haven't flown now for a couple of years. I miss flying but it is too costly..

I started in 1956, soled in just five hours in an Aeroca Champ 65 hp. Over the years, having rented, owned, flown some corporate jobs, had my own flying school, etc., I've accumulated around 4,700 hrs. I've owned a Stinson Voyager (small tail 150 hp); Cessna-180; Cessna 140-A; and Cessna 310. I'm Commercial/Instrument for single/multi engine aircraft; Flight instructor for airplanes/instruments. It, like music was such a key part of my life, but today it's so expensive I just can't afford renting. I'm deeply afraid I'll never get to fly again but I still dream. At one time I truly believed I'd never see a Rickenbacher Bakelite during this life time.

I have flown a Cesna a few times as well as gliders and hot air balloons and I am considering coming over to the States to get my licence, over here it would cost thousands of dollars to get a licence probably about 4 times as much and it would also be a lot quicker to get one over there.

30 years here.

Jerry

I bought my first plane (Aeronica Chief)when I was 19 years old. I later owned an Ercoupe and I flew the wings off that great little plane for many years.

I got my pilots licence in a Cessna 152 because my Ercoupe didn't have rudder pedals and I didn't want restrictions on my licence. I also flew 172's a lot after after I sold my Ercoupe.

Although my wife still encourages me to fly, and I have the perfect place to do so, I'm all to well aware of her fear for me because she is afraid of flying, therefore I can't bring myself to put her through the trauma she would experience.

Now I'm content flying all kinds of planes on my computer. Just yesterday while engaged in air to air combat in my F-16, I was shot down and I'm here today to tell about it. Think I'll fly my Lear 21 to Vegas this afternoon.

I waw a working pilot ( and A&P and avionic tech) for twenty some years . . . was playing mus9ic in Nashville during the sixties and seventies and learned to fly on the GI bill . . . all fixed wing ratings inc CFII, rotary helo + instructor (no IFR helo), plus A&P, Inspection Authorization (still current)though no longer a working mechanic. Ended up with about 8K hours, 6K + ME. Typed in Lr 20 series and HFB 320 Hansa Jet.

I have had a license since 1973. I own a 1946 Taylorcraft and hangar and fly it every chance I get. I also have an experimental byplane going together very slowly. Flying has always been an important part of my life just as music has been. I'm planning on building a new house at an airpark near San Antonio.

Ray,

My first ride was in a 65hp Chump. I loved that little plane!

The one that really hooked me was the Beoing model 75 (Stearman bi-plane) with the 215 hp Lycoming. I was a teenager at the time. I flew it again years later after being retro-fitted with the P&W 450hp Wasp Jr. This was like going from a Pignose to a 6-14-E. What a ride.

I soloed a flying milkstool on my 32nd birthday. I got a lotta hours in a 140. I miss my 36 bakelite. There are a few parellels in our lives.

Be well

John Drury
NTSGA #3

Wayne, well, be carful, the dangerous part is the drive to the airport. Remember this also, the three things that will get you hurt are 1. weather 2. weather and 3. weather. Its better to be down here wishing you were up there than up there wishing you were down here. You have a whole world of fun and utility ahead of you, it's a lot easier to fly well than to play steel well.
Well, gotta' go to the airport, The " V-tail doctor killer" is calling and I never say no to it!
Your friend,

I took my first flying lesson November 20, 1999 and got my Private January 7, 2000. May 19, 2000 I got my Instrument ticket. April 4, 2001 I earned my Commercial rating followed by my CFI on December 14, 2001. The last time I flew was from Ankeny, Iowa to St. Louis for the 2002 ISGC. There is no shortage of CFI's around here but there are not many opportunities for employment. I am tired of spending money to fly and would at least like to do it for free (if not actually getting paid). Hence, the reason that it has been a year and a half since I have flown. Sure would love to get back in the sky though! Oh well...I can pretend here at my computer where it is "as real as it gets".

Dave Alfstad
Indianola, Iowa

(humor alert)


I flew 40 years ago in a Sky King type "Mini Constellation" and a DC3.

Since then planes have gotten too tinny and sound like screeching banshees, with all these modern pilots doing Loop the Loops, free falling three point rolls, and stalling out on purpose, half pedaling their trim flaps, that it's pathetic.

I refuse to fly in these modern contraptions.

Give me a train any day of the week.

" Never feel sorry for a man that owns an airplane." -Sir Anthony Hopkins-



EJL

( End humor alert)

Bobbe,

You forgot to tell him the 3 most useless things to a pilot with an empty tank are: The sky above, the runway behind, and the fuel on the ground. LMAO

Oh yeah Bobbe, when taxiing the Dr. Killer at full throttle make sure the gears are down.

Wayne, thanks for starting this thread it is fun. It is also off topic as hell, I suspect we will all be run out of here directly. Maybe not.

We should do one of these about motorcycles, I got into bikes in 1959 and still ride, Bobbe is a biker from way back and still rides, Paul Bigsby was instrumental in the developement of the Crocker motorcycle and rode most of his life.

John Drury
NTSGA #3<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by John Drury on 25 January 2004 at 04:46 PM.]</p></FONT>

Wayne I think we talked about your flying before you left. I gat my ticket in 1960, and flew many singles, Cesna, pipers, Cher. Com, Station Wagon, 180 constant pitch.
The problem was I liked RC better than the real ons and flew many contest in the southeast with some of the world class RCers,
Jim Kirkland, Don Coleman,Ron Chigie, Jim Kirkland, Jim Edwards was the one that started Proline RC co. when you get back I will tell you my part in that venture,I named the Co. for one thing.
Is March still the date.

I saw a few pictures of Hank Thompson flying and somewhere I was told that Curly used to fly with him. Also have a album of Leon McCauluff with a picture of him on the cover flying a V tail Bonanza.He also had a large smile on his face.

If anyone wants to read a true flying book get "Fate Is The Hunter". A true story of Ernest K Gann. Its about his flying with the airlines before and durring WW 2. Its about the things that happened to him and how he survived many close calls. Once you start reading you wont be able to put it down.

Well I used to fly a 172 and a 152 that I owned and loved every minute of it but had to give it up because of health reasons but my heart is still up in the wild blue younder.

Wayne, I have a Commercial License with Instrument and Multi-Engine ratings.

Turbine ratings? No___maybe, one day.

Rick